


Ghosts

by PocketPrompto



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Cornyxweek2019, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Minor Angst, nyx reflects on what family means to him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 15:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19770985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PocketPrompto/pseuds/PocketPrompto
Summary: Nyx thinks about his different familial relationships across the years.Day 5 of CorNyx week





	Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Family

_ He laughs like Selena _ .

Not enough to truly mimic her, but enough to give Libertus chills when he hears it. It’s uncanny, he’d say. 

There’s times where it sounds like she’s cackling off in the distance, undoubtedly at some dumb thing Nyx or Lib did. She used to laugh a lot. Sometimes at others, sometimes at herself, often at the Gods. Nyx couldn’t count the times he’d found Selena standing in the rain, screaming fiercely at the sky, only to be met with lightning in response. Far enough away so as not to hurt her, but close enough that the static would make the hair on Nyx’s arms stand straight up. 

Once she was done screaming, she would start laughing. Hysterical laughter that bubbled out of her like a kid blowing into a full cup of milk with a straw. Selena knew better than anyone the cruelty of the Gods. Selena had felt their damage coursing through her body every day, making her weaker and weaker until she couldn’t stand long enough to yell at the sky anymore. Until even talking was too stressful on her body and she couldn’t muster up the energy to  _ care _ . 

But even up until the very end, when she was laying in her deathbed and Libertus was weaving chrysanthemums into her hair and Nyx was crying in the other room, clutching his beads in his hands and praying to Ramuh for  _ anything _ , Selena was still laughing.

Oftentimes, Nyx will catch the ghost of her voice mid-laugh and try to change it into something more uniquely  _ him _ but he always fails. He’ll always carry that little bit of Selena with him. Most of the time he doesn’t think of it. And Libertus stopped mentioning the similarity long ago when it started to hurt more than soothe.

~

_ He loves like his mother. _

All at once or not at all. Nyx’s mother found kindness and good in everyone she met but if you wronged her or somehow found yourself on her bad side, well, not even Ramuh himself could save you.

But, that was a very short list and whoever was on it, was on it for a very good reason. And that was something Nyx admired about his mother. She put so much of her effort in life into loving as many people as she could. She had loved their father until his last breath and then continued to love him well after he was gone. 

She cooked for their village and opened her doors to whoever needed it. That’s how he and Libertus met, actually. He had stumbled into their village, dirty and half drowned and Nyx’s mother took him in and clothed him and fed him and watched him grow along with her own children.

When his mother was long removed from Galahd, Nyx kept her traditions. Every week he cooked for their village (with Selena’s help because Ramuh bless the boy, he couldn’t cook to save his life) and he kept his door open to anyone who needed to find refuge.

And even when he had left his homeland, after the flames ravaged their hills and valleys and the Nifs claimed it as their own, Nyx  _ still _ kept his mother’s word. He cooked for the Kingsglaive and he let them use his apartment to come and go as they needed, when they needed. He was friendly to everyone he met, though understandably more cautious in Insomnia than he was in Galahd.

And then there was Cor.

Cor was an enigma to Nyx, one that he desperately wanted to understand.

Cor was the exact opposite of Nyx. He trusted no one and even when he did finally decided to let someone in, he was very particular and still hidden behind a million walls that people eventually gave up. The only ones who stuck around were Regis, Clarus, and Cid. And really, that’s all Cor needed. 

Monica stuck around too but that’s more out of a working obligation than anything. So to have someone like Nyx waltz into his life and demand friendship, well...you can take a guess as to how well  _ that _ went.

Still, Nyx never gave up. He brought food to Cor during his weekly potlucks and left it outside his office. He’d greet him every morning and even try to catch him at the end of every day. Cor eventually gave in. He had pulled Nyx aside one day and asked him why he was trying so hard and Nyx came up with some witty remark that probably annoyed Cor more than anything...but it worked. And from then on, Cor started returning his ‘Good Morning’s’ and eating the food that Nyx left, and it was okay.

~

They sometimes went on missions together. Usually, Kingsglaive and Crownsguard didn’t mingle but Cor was experienced and Nyx was stealthy and that made for a pretty lethal combination during reconnaissance missions.

Now, generally these missions were boring. Lots of camping, lots of staying far away, lots of silence. Well, on Cor’s part. Nyx couldn’t keep his mouth shut if he didn’t  _ have _ to. 

It started off as small talk. 

_ Nice weather we’re having, huh? _

_ No traffic yesterday. That was cool. _

_ What kind of food do you like? _

Cor rarely indulged him but even he could have his edges chipped away every so often. He knew once he started replying with anything other than a noncommittal grunt then Nyx would start asking more questions but...well maybe that wasn’t so bad. The kid was starting to grow on him, anyways.

Small talk turned to 20 questions turned to late night conversations under the stars.

_ Do you have any family here? _

Nyx clammed up then. Cor had never seen him so at a loss for words. So he nodded and looked back up towards the sky.

_ Me neither. _

And that was that.

~

Cor never knew a baby could puke  _ so much _ . 

He felt maybe he should be concerned with the amount of liquid that was currently spouting out of this little blond haired child but Nyx kept reassuring him that it was fairly normal.

Okay maybe they should be a little concerned.

Just a little.

~

When Prompto turned 5, Nyx threw him a party at the Insomnia City Zoo. 

To his credit, only 2 Coeurls managed to escape.

That was less than he anticipated so he counted that as a victory in his mind.

Cor, not so much.

~

_ Prompto laughs like Selena. _

Not in the way Nyx does, though. Not in the way most people think. He doesn’t sound like her, but he has the same energy. The same carefree cackle that Nyx used to think was so unique to his sister.

It stops him in his tracks one day, the hairs on his neck rising. He turned down the hallway to see a teenage Prompto running through the halls with the crowned prince of Lucis and it reminds him of Galahd. Jumping across boulders and falling into the rivers. Laughing so loud and so hard that their throats hurt at the end of the day.

This time, though, the sound doesn’t make him sad. Instead, he’s happy to know that his son will now also carry a bit of Selena with him wherever he goes.

Because at the end of the day, it isn’t only just the memories that keep a person alive.

It’s whatever things that didn’t die with them the moment their body stopped carrying their soul.

His sisters laugh.

His mother’s kindness.

Those things went to live on in other people. Nyx used to say he had no family left. That they died in Galahd along with everything else but the fact is that they never died.

Selena left her laugh in his mouth. His mother left her kindness in his heart. So even as their bodies returned to the earth that borne them, their personalities lived on. 

Nyx had Cor, and Nyx had Prompto, and when the years go by and he finds himself back in Galahd with his husband and his son, he won’t mourn his sister and his mother.

He’ll only welcome them back, and introduce his new family to his old.

**Author's Note:**

> [Find me on Tumblr!](https://pocket-prompto.tumblr.com/)   
>  [Or on Twitter!](https://twitter.com/pocketprompto)


End file.
